The good news is that Mercilus finally shows some sign that he might become a better pass rusher than Barwin.

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Tied for second with Jared Allen behind Tamba Hali for the week.

Pretty cool. I thought he had a great game. Some of his pressures were scheme, but I think he's starting to learn to use his physical tools to beat his opponents too. He's learning to gain leverage & bend..... if he continues, he may be a dominate edge rusher before the season is over.

Damn that defense for not shutting out every offense we play! Our offense and Kubiak can't do it by themselves. Booo!

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We had the same problem last year, I don't know why y'all are acting like everything's all good.

In three consecutive games, this defense has given up a 90+ yard drive. As great as the defense has been playing, this is a big, big problem. When you consider football is more of a situational game & those drives came at crucial times in the game, it's even worse.

Schaub's pick 6 was bad & the single most back-breaking play in all of football, it only tied the game. Had the defense not given up a TD,(remember I'm talking about a 90+ yard drive) held them to a field goal, we win that game by 4. Offense doesn't have to score another point.

I understand if you look at it the game as a whole, the 13 points given up by the defense is astounding. But 99 yards & a touchdown..... you can't let that happen. Just can't.

Definitely shouldn't let it happen 3 games in a row. Jake Locker. The great Jake Locker led his team on a 98 yard TD drive against us. Joe thefck Flacco, on a bad day led his team on a 96 yard TD scoring drive against us. & Russell Wilson missing 3/5ths of his OL 99 yards...... it's insane to be talking about how "good" we are.

We had the same problem last year, I don't know why y'all are acting like everything's all good.

In three consecutive games, this defense has given up a 90+ yard drive. As great as the defense has been playing, this is a big, big problem. When you consider football is more of a situational game & those drives came at crucial times in the game, it's even worse.

Schaub's pick 6 was bad & the single most back-breaking play in all of football, it only tied the game. Had the defense not given up a TD,(remember I'm talking about a 90+ yard drive) held them to a field goal, we win that game by 4. Offense doesn't have to score another point.

I understand if you look at it the game as a whole, the 14 points given up by the defense is astounding. But 99 yards & a touchdown..... you can't let that happen. Just can't.

Definitely shouldn't let it happen 3 games in a row. Jake Locker. The great Jake Locker led his team on a 98 yard TD drive against us. Joe thefck Flacco, on a bad day led his team on a 96 yard TD scoring drive against us. & Russell Wilson missing 3/5ths of his OL 99 yards...... it's insane to be talking about how "good" we are.

Tennessee is 29th in offense. Baltimore is 27th.

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Thanks for so succinctly putting things into such real perspective. MSR.

If you're playing that game, take away the 236 yards or total offense the Ravens had versus the Texans, and they would average 344.6 ypg, good for 18th in the league. Subtract the 248 yards the Titans gained in Houston, and they would be ranked 22nd. No, they do not possess top offenses. But they still performed below their averages when facing the Texans defense.

We had the same problem last year, I don't know why y'all are acting like everything's all good.

In three consecutive games, this defense has given up a 90+ yard drive. As great as the defense has been playing, this is a big, big problem. When you consider football is more of a situational game & those drives came at crucial times in the game, it's even worse.

Schaub's pick 6 was bad & the single most back-breaking play in all of football, it only tied the game. Had the defense not given up a TD,(remember I'm talking about a 90+ yard drive) held them to a field goal, we win that game by 4. Offense doesn't have to score another point.

I understand if you look at it the game as a whole, the 14 points given up by the defense is astounding. But 99 yards & a touchdown..... you can't let that happen. Just can't.

Definitely shouldn't let it happen 3 games in a row. Jake Locker. The great Jake Locker led his team on a 98 yard TD drive against us. Joe thefck Flacco, on a bad day led his team on a 96 yard TD scoring drive against us. & Russell Wilson missing 3/5ths of his OL 99 yards...... it's insane to be talking about how "good" we are.

Tennessee is 29th in offense. Baltimore is 27th.

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The defense has made every game winnable this year. How many teams are there that have not allowed a drive over 75 yards? The defense plays a lot harder than the offense if you ask me.

The defense has made every game winnable this year. How many teams are there that have not allowed a drive over 75 yards? The defense plays a lot harder than the offense if you ask me.

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At the end of the year, we can look at point differential & turnover battle & whatever & what not. It's not about how many points the defense allowed, it's when they allowed them & how.

Tennessee opened the game with an 80 yard TD drive. Tennessee then opened the 3rd qtr with a 99 yard TD drive.

It's not so much the points. If they had an excellent punt return that set them up in good scoring position, or if they got a turnover deep in our end, it is what it is. But to start on the 2, get driven back a yard, then on 3rd down pick up a 3rd & 11 from the one...... & turn it into a TD. Sorry, that is not good enough.

The offense scored 20 points against Seattle. Should be good enough to win. They did nothing in the second half, so it really didn't matter. They needed to score at least 3 points, couldn't do it. Didn't play well enough to win.

These numbers don't mean a lot without knowing how long the QBs take before releasing the ball. Manning reads the defense and gets it out quickly. Sometimes, pressure is on the QB as much as the o-line.

Of course, Schaub took a big contract which pretty much forced the team to go with young linemen on the right side. If Schaub needed a vet line to protect him (and that seems to be the case), maybe he wasn't worth the $$$ he got?

You know what? I'll take a 95-yard scoring drive against our defense every game if they only give up 10 points in regulation. Don't count the pick-6 against them or the gift FG we gave them when Tate fumbled, and that's what you have.

Did the defense make some bad mistakes? Yes. No one's denying that. However, the defense has more than held up its part of the bargain this season, and it seems like they're getting better. The offense, specifically the QB, needs to step up.

When you put it in perspective, Schaub & the offense don't look so bad. Still a top 10 passing offense (9), tied for 4th in passing TDs (8).

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Yeah if you ignore being 4th in the league in turnovers, the scoring drought in the first half of the Chargers, entire game Baltimore, second half of the Seahawks, and the slow start against the Titans....yeah. Don't look too bad.

And then we're trying to say the Titans are this in total offense and Ravens are this. It's as if our defense had no effect where they stand in total offense all because a long drive? In today's NFL chances are rather low shutting someone out every single drive. Only ten teams average less than 20 points a game yet our defense has held 3 out of 4 opponents to this total and since the second half of the Chargers game have been basically the best defense in this league.

We're picking on the Titans and Ravens yet both average more points than us and better 3rd down conversion than our offense.

So maybe in retrospect the defense isn't as bad we like to think? Or maybe those long drives aren't a big big problem. A concern yes but acting as if it is this engrossing issue is just a stretch. Especially when we consider some of these long drives have been sustained by very questionable penalties called by the referees. Can't even believe we're trying to mock Locker in this thread when the kid obviously is playing better and has zero turnovers and rated higher than our own quarterback.

So if you expect the defense to play the absolute perfect game you may end up disappointed more times than not. That simply is not today's league. Everything is stacked against the defense so for ours to be performing to the levels it is seems rather remarkable. Yes, they have yielded on a drive here and there...

...Meanwhile the offense has gone completely absent for entire halves of play (or entire game in Ravens aspect) and given points back to the opposition or given them the ball. Let's also not forget the interception against the Chargers immediately giving them the ball to put the defense against our own endzone.

So yeah, those long drives are a concern. But nothing more than that. We have much bigger issues currently and the defenses overall performance has been commendable.

Here is the problem. The defense is having to compensate with starting out the game with the opponent having 7 points on the board. The 7 to 14 points we give away is where we are losing the game. The defense is playing outstanding. If the offense and special teams don't give away points we don't have any issues.

The thing about our offense is that if it could score 35+ points per game, our defense wouldn't have so much pressure on it. The Broncos defense probably has to make 1 or 2 stops per game and they win. Our defense has to stop on 7 to 8 drives for us to win.
Our offense has to get its **** together, the defense has done its job.